Seattle Neighborhood Networks Project

Background

The City of Seattle has a body called CTAB, the Citizens' Technology Advisory Board. http://www.seattle.gov/community-technology-advisory-board

CTAB advises the municipal government on technical matters. http://www.seattle.gov/community-technology-advisory-board/what-we-docommittees

Since this is Seattle, they mainly seem to advise "buy something from $VENDOR" where VENDOR is one of Microsoft, Amazon, Boeing, et al.

CTAB has a list of 4 remits listed on their web page navigation sidebar, one of which is Digital Inclusion. Synthesizing http://www.seattle.gov/community-technology-advisory-board/what-we-docommittees/digital-inclusion and the contents of a paper document (source apparently unavailable) distributed at a recent PechaKucha event (no link, because their website is toxic) Digital Inclusion emcompasses:

• digital equity
• broadband adoption efforts on connectivity
• skills and devices and technical support
• device recycling and refurbishment

At a recent Group:LibrePlanet_Washington meeting, koanhead proposed a set of overlapping projects which can meet all these goals in a Freedom-respecting manner. Hopefully CTAB and the municipality can be persuaded to buy-in, as some initial funding will be required to make these projects possible; afterwards they can become self-supporting if properly managed. Buy-in from the City might not be easy as CTAB membership has some entanglement with Microsoft and other entities which may express an interest in continued for-profit civic capture. If the City will not help then we can approach individual neighborhoods, or even smaller groups if we can muster the necessary bodies to do that leg-work. We can hope that it will not come to that.

Components

The proposed project(s) are modular in nature. The plan is based on a bottom-up approach, building infrastructure and skills in individual neighborhoods and then connecting those neighborhoods together in order to achieve Metcalfe value (in information interchange) and economies of scale (in processing of physical things).

Recycling

Responsible recycling of electronic devices is important in several ways.

First, some of the materials that compose these devices are mined or harvested by slaves. Slavery is morally repugnant, massively ecologically harmful, and economically irresponsible. The mines operated by slaves and owned by slave-masters dump disproportionately-large amounts of various pollutants into oceans and rivers, affecting all of us. By reclaiming as much of these materials as we can, we can avoid contributing to the enslavement of human beings and to the concomitant environmental poisoning; if we can perform such reclamation at a large scale then we may depress the market in such materials, rendering the use of slaves to extract them unprofitable.

Second, the materials contained within some electronic devices are toxic and need to be kept out of the standard waste stream. There exists an unfortunate but widespread practice of simply dumping these devices into landfills, either in the US or abroad. This causes heavy metals and other toxins to leach into groundwater and eventually into peoples' drinking water supplies. Since the recent debacle with Total Reclaim https://www.atrecycle.com/total-reclaim-caught-exporting-to-hong-kong/, it's evident that we cannot trust even certified "e-Steward" vendors to do our recycling for us. Instead of forcing this externality on indigent people, we can turn it into positive value for local municipality.

Third, nearly all 'dead' electronic devices contain re-usable parts (notwithstanding the usual warning stickers claiming the opposite) which can be harvested, sorted and sold on to local hobbyists in kit form or used in local electronics classes. Availability of free or low-cost components makes these classes more available for low-income populations. Dismantling of devices and harvesting of 'through-hole' components can be easily accomplished at neighborhood workshops by unskilled volunteers with semi-skilled supervision. Some special equipment is desirable but not entirely necessary.

What's needed:

=Necessary equipment

• PPA: Eye and hand protection
• Hand tools
• Adequate ventilation

Optional equipment

• Resistor bank for grounding capacitors
• Desoldering equipment

Training

koanhead and others have prior experience in dismantling devices. Training materials are available at freegeekseattle.org and elsewhere online.

Unlike other aspects of the program, the materials extraction phase may not be easily decentralized. The processes and materials involved can be somewhat dangerous, and the use of an industrial facility is indicated. Further study will reveal the extent to which the processes can be broken down, but this preliminary sketch of the project plan will assume a centralized recycling facility.

Refurbishment

Refurbishment of old or broken computer equipment into usable equipment is also the first phase of the recycling process. This can be done in a decentralized manner, each neighborhood can use a small space (Free Geek Seattle used a small classroom) to store and to work on hardware. These are also learning spaces, so they should be accessible to the public whenever activities are happening.

Equipment

• PPE as above
• Hand tools
  • Screwdrivers
  • Hex drivers
  • Pliers
  • grounding straps